Monday, June 30, 2014

Educationally speaking, the bridge from the days of yesteryear to now is a lesson all people should share. This is not just for the young people but for the adults that have never seen many of the tools or stores where the old days of trading are lessons for all who do not remember them. That is what Log Cabin Days are all about and in the picture album below that is in the Oakland Press, showcase those that are making the connections available for the public. Photos by Roy J. Akers www.soundandvisionentertainment.com The photo link is below VVV

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

There is one thing about Rush Limbaugh above all other things. He is intolerant of anyone that does not see the world the same way he does. I do not understand how anyone can be conservative about everything anymore than I can understand how someone is liberal about everything. It's a huge reason why the people we elect do not serve anyone but the narrow audience that thinks those with narrow minds are doing a good job then cannot solve problems because finding a pragmatic solution is something they can live with for their constituents or this country. While Rush is great entertainment, his recent rant against a bookstore that sells children's books was pretty stupid. Limbaugh is an author of quite a few books and he has quite a following. So why was he mad at a children's bookstore that sells products aimed at multi-cultural education giving viewpoints for students that are trying to find a place in this world? Because they will not carry his books. As the story below indicates, why anyone would shop at Home Depot for Ragu does not make business sense. The Teaching for Change bookstore is not Walmart, Barnes and Noble or a grocery store carrying best sellers. It has a very narrow focus as the story below describes and makes Limbaugh look like the narrow minded demagogue he is.

Rush into Battle

You wouldn’t expect a health food store to carry Pringles.
Nor would you tune in to the Cartoon Network in search of
episodes of Mad Men or Breaking Bad.
So we’re wondering why Rush Limbaugh thinks the Teaching for
Change Bookstore at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C., should carry his Rush Revere line of books for young
readers?
If you don’t know about the Teaching for Change Bookstore—and
it’s
well worth knowing—here’s the lowdown. It’s small and selective. Its
children’s section gives priority to books that feature children of
color. They
do not offer Mr. Limbaugh’s books.
That such a bookstore is rare and needed will come as no
surprise to teachers and librarians who struggle to find children’s books featuring
characters who reflect the diverse children of the United States. We wrote
about this problem recently in our magazine.
Limbaugh, however, takes issue with the bookstore’s
mission. It offends him. In fact, it seems to infuriate him. He used up a chunk
of radio time on his June 16 show to denounce the store’s selection criteria as
“racist and bigoted.”
And then he got personal. He decided to smear the folks who
run Teaching for Change—people we at Teaching Tolerance know and respect as
allies in the struggle for social justice. The character assassination poured forth
from Limbaugh’s mouth: He called Teaching for Change the “most bigoted, racist
people,” “loony” and “simply dumb.”
By the time Rush finished, he wasn’t simply vilifying the
good people who run the Teaching for Change Bookstore. In his telling, they
morphed from narrow-minded booksellers into powerful foes, who “happen to be
running the country … in Washington … in charge of the public school system …
running daycare …” and who “show up at Obama’s fundraisers.”
His war cry had the expected results:
Limbaugh’s followers inundated Teaching for Change with what TFC describes as
“vicious, hateful messages.”
I don’t doubt it. When one sows hate and anger, as Limbaugh does
so well, hate and anger are the harvest. We experienced it here at Teaching
Tolerance in 2012, when the American Family Association attacked our Mix
It Up at Lunch Day program.
That attack backfired. Despite the avalanche of ugly
messages, we were buoyed by the outpouring of support from teachers, friends
and allies, including Teaching for Change.
Today, we stand with them. You can too. Visit their bookstore,
or send a note of support, and we’ll forward it to them. Costello is the
director of Teaching Tolerance.

The Waterford Parks and Recreation has been serving the local community since the 1950's. They have been doing an outstanding job and in spite of all they have done, they have had a really tough time getting a millage passed. The reasons are very perplexing to me as many people use the services but the message has fallen on deaf ears. I do know they were up against police and fire millages at the same time and while the former were passed, the P&R was the shutout. They have been helping citizens from infants taking classes bonding with their parents, to t-ball and they have great programs for the seniors. Still, the P&R has been losing revenue for years with the property value decreases of the great recession of 2008 greasing the rails for a dramatic loss of money to subsidize the programs and they have laid off just about all but a skeletal crew and have had to cut services to the point of no return. On August 5th, they have put a half mill request to the voters that comes to $2.04 per month for a homeowner with a valuation of $98,000 or $24.50 per year. This covers community events which are held at very reasonable rates and often are free such as the Concerts at the Park at Hess Hathaway Park. The Waterford P&R also operated several ballparks, canoe sites and the hidden gem known as the Drayton Plains Nature Center. Check out the short video which shows some of the parks and the need for the millage increase.

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Any educator in Michigan can tell you they are targeted by politicians that couldn't last a week and most a day with the average public school student. Add regulations, politics played by school district administrators with teacher evaluations and a right to work element that has eroded teacher rights in the work place and you can see why many of the 2014 graduates are staying away from the education profession in droves. Add a charter school environment that resembles the wild west where profits by large companies and a set of rules that are much more liberal that allows them to pocket money that would go to students and valuable programs and you get the idea. Add Stephen Henderson and the Detroit Free Press staff's look at the failed promises of charter schools and you may take a look at the school down the road from the public school that may be running rogue from regulations and providing a quality student learning environment.

Stephen Henderson: For students' sake, Michigan must do better on charter schools

June 22, 2014
|

There were 12 charter schools the first year the state law
governing them was passed; today, there are about 370. / Romain
Blanquart/Detroit Free Press

Great idea. Lousy execution.
Twenty years ago, charter
school advocates in Michigan promoted independent public schools on two
premises: that they would provide quality options for parents in places
like Detroit — where the public school system was, even then, abysmal —
and that they would introduce competition into the educational
marketplace that would force old-line public schools to get better or
face closure.
Today? Neither pledge has come true. In fact,
neither is even a reasonable pipe dream, because Michigan’s charter law
enforces little or no quality control over charter schools. The last two
decades have been a raw and unregulated experiment on Michigan children
with no accountability for academic performance or the spending of
public money.
■
Full coverage:Free Press special report: State of charter schools
■
Related:Michigan spends $1B on charter schools but fails to hold them accountable
It’s
a laissez-faire free-for-all that is sacrificing children in the name
of “innovation” and “choice.” And the saddest part? There’s barely a
whisper in Lansing about doing any better.
A Free Press series that begins today lays out the scope and shape of the state’s charter school mess.
There
were 12 charter schools the first year the state law governing them was
passed; today, there are about 370. Statewide, 38% of all Michigan
charter schools that are ranked fall below the 25th percentile, meaning
at least 75% of all Michigan schools perform better.
Meanwhile,
there’s little effort to hold them accountable. Nearly two-thirds of the
charter schools that have been open for more than a decade are in the
bottom half of the state’s school rankings, and state law is not
demanding that they get better or be shuttered. They’re also largely
reticent even to say how they spend their money, while a whopping 60% of
them are run by companies that take public dollars to operate on a
for-profit basis.
And most public schools are no better than they
were in 1994. In the districts with the most charters, like Detroit, the
principal effect has been to siphon money away from old-line public
schools, fueling their decline and ongoing financial troubles. All we’ve
done is create dual school systems — both awful, one near totally
unmanaged.To read the rest of Henderson's editorial, click below. http://www.freep.com/article/20140622/COL33/306220072/

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

When I was teaching full-time, students sagging their pants was the number one dress code violation. For girls, between showing cleavage or wearing skirts that are too short, there really wasn't too much for a teacher to do. What is really strange about the story below is the girl that wore a skirt that could hardly be considered risque. She also wore the outfit several times to school before drawing the ire of a school staff member. What her mom decided to do about the suspension is pretty funny and draw accolades from quite a few people.

Mom Wears Daughter's 'Too Short' Dress to Her Graduation

When Amy Redwine's 17-year-old daughter, Violet Burkhart, was sent home from school
for wearing a dress that a teacher thought was too short, the
Lexington, North Carolina, mom couldn't believe it. Not only was it
Violet's last day of classes before graduation, but she had worn the
dress to school half a dozen times before without any problems. To
cheer up her upset daughter, Redwine joked that she would wear the dress
herself to Violet's graduation – and that's exactly what
she did. Now, her subtle-but-defiant act has sparked conversations
throughout her community about school dress codes.

"Pick
on me. I'm an adult. I can take it," Redwine tells Yahoo Shine about
her decision to wear the above-the-knee floral frock to Violet's
graduation from Central Davidson High School. She believes that Violet
was singled out by teachers, and that the dress code rules were applied
inconsistently. Otherwise, Redwine says, her daughter was a good student
whose only previous fashion infraction was when she wore black lipstick
to school and a teacher called it "distracting."

Redwine says she was inspired by the famous Jeannie C. Rily song "Harper Valley PTA,"
about a single mom who is criticized by the other mothers at her
daughter's school for wearing short skirts and retaliates by calling out
the other parents at a PTA meeting.

"People were coming up to me
saying "thank you" and giving me hugs and complimenting the dress," she says about the graduation ceremony. "Several
moms told me they were going to wear the shortest dress they had. Even
some teachers told me they were going to wear short dresses. You know it
meant something. It meant standing up to the school board, to the bullies, standing up for my daughter."

For
Redwine, wearing her Violet's dress started out as a joke, but it
quickly turned into an opportunity to teach her daughter a lesson about
standing up for yourself when you think you've been unfairly criticized.
Violet, who plans to enroll in a community college culinary school
program, had a blast on her graduation day posing for photos – with her in a red cap and gown, and Mom in a flowered dress. Both of them also wore big smiles.

Sacred Heart- Wow, what a graduation ceremony. The parent responses portion of the program and presentation of the roses was really incredible. These 29 girls received more than $3.2 million in college scholarships! The schools the girls are being accepted to are below the picture link below.

What an incredible speaker Sacred Heart had and they did not have to go far. The graduation speaker was Natalie Cochran from the class of 2004. Her heart felt message of pursuing your dreams was personal and profound. She also has an incredible voice and with her listening to people telling her she could always fall back on her detour of hospice care, she listened to people (Yes, God uses people) and is once again pursuing her dream of being a professional opera singer.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Walled Lake Central teacher Neb Stojkovic will enjoy his summer after an intense month that landed him a spot on the Michael and Kelly Show on ABC as the runner-up teacher after being nominated by a student. In a post in May in this blog, his story was told by Channel 7 News and the Michael and Kelly Show. In a story written by Carol Hopkins of the Oakland Press, his prize is 30 I Pads by students in the Walled Lake District. Her story is below.

Walled Lake Central teacher Neb Stojkovic with his former
student Kelsey Prena, 23, and the first of 30 iPads that he will receive
after finishing 2nd on the LIVE! With Kelly and Michael show’s Top
Teacher contest. Prena wrote the letter that got Stojkovic nominated and
he will receive the iPads and personalized software for his classroom
from CompassLearning. Friday, June 6, 2014. Tim Thompson-The Oakland
Press

While standing on stage shooting a photo story where some of the biggest names in pop history have performed, sometimes the best moments are for the common people. Not that the Lake Orion Graduation was an uneventful event. For Joice Dominquez, an unexpected reunion with her sister Anglelyn who flew in earlier in the week and surprised the 2014 Lake Orion Graduate. Angelyn is a Staff Sargent in the Air Force and her sister will follow in her footsteps later this year. Lara Mossa, a staff writer for the Oakland Press picks up the story and the complete photo album of the Lake Orion graduation is linked in the story.

Lake Orion grad surprised by military sister

Lake Orion senior Joice Dominquez is surprised by her sister,
Angelyn Dominquez, coming home to see her graduation from Lake Orion
High School on Tuesday, June 10, at DTE Energy Music Theatre. Photo by
Roy J. Akers - Special to The Oakland Press

Lake Orion senior Joice Dominquez is surprised by her
sister, Angelyn Dominquez, coming home to see her graduation from Lake
Orion High School on Tuesday, June 10, at DTE Energy Music Theatre.
Photo by Roy J. Akers - Special to The Oakland Press

INDEPENDENCE TWP. >> School leaders in Lake Orion helped
Angelyn Dominguez, a staff sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, surprise her
sister at graduation.
It is a reunion story with a twist for younger sister Joice Dominguez.
Angelyn Dominguez took a leave from the U.S. Air Force this month to attend her sister’s graduation from Lake Orion High School.
But she didn’t want to hide for eight days, she said, because she
wanted to visit with her family. So, she talked to school officials and
made arrangements to present her sister with her diploma at the
ceremony.HERE ARE PHOTOS FROM THE GRADUATION.
“I thought it would be really special,” said Angelyn Dominguez, 28, who leaves back for her base in South Korea on Thursday. “We’re really close. It was a big thing in her life.
“It was a big moment for her. I thought it would be special if I gave it to her.”
At the Tuesday graduation ceremony, which was held at DTE Energy
Music Theatre near Clarkston, Dominguez snuck out during the program,
changed into her dress uniform, and appeared on stage to give her sister
the certificate.
“I was completely shocked,” said Joice Dominguez, 18. “It was
amazing. I couldn’t hold back the tears. It was just the most amazing
thing that’s happened so far in my life.”
Daughters of Bruce and Kathy Dominguez of Lake Orion, the girls
have not seen each other in about a year. Despite their age difference,
they have always been close.
“We’re pretty much best friends,” Joice Dominguez said.
Angelyn Dominguez, a staff sergeant, has been in the military for
six years and is a crew chief for an F-16 Fighting Falcon. Joice
Dominguez will follower in her footsteps and enter the U.S. Air Force
later this year; she hopes to someday be stationed with her sister when
she returns to the states. While in school, she was a member of the
National Honor Society.